BIOCHEMISTRY OF SPORULATION II

Abstract

Hanson, Richard S. (University of Illinois, Urbana), V. R. Srinivasan, and H. Orin Halvorson . Biochemistry of sporulation. II. Enzymatic changes during sporulation of Bacillus cereus . J. Bacteriol. 86: 45–50. 1963.—It has been possible to correlate enzymatic activities of Bacillus cereus strain T with particular phases of growth and sporulation by using cultures in which the cells grow rapidly and undergo the transition from growth to sporulation in a synchronous manner. Cells harvested during vegetative growth lack a functional tricarboxylic acid cycle, and the enzymes required for the completion of this cycle are synthesized during the transition from growth to sporulation. α-Picolinic acid, a specific antisporogenic agent, prevented the synthesis of aconitase. Its effect on aconitase synthesis was reversed by agents capable of reversing its inhibition of sporulation, and, therefore, its antisporogenic activity is believed to be related to its ability to prevent the formation of an active tricarboxylic acid cycle, which is required for sporulation but not growth.